The Prime Minister of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Ralph Gonsalves, spoke with our correspondent in New York, Aissa Garcia, in an exclusive interview, within the context of the 78th United Nations General Assembly. The Premier refers to the obsolete functioning of the world's financial institutions and the climate problems afflicting the planet, among other subjects. teleSUR
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00:00 In this special interview for Telesur, the Prime Minister of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines,
00:04 Raul González, spoke with our special envoy to New York, Aiza GarcÃa,
00:09 in the framework of the 78th United Nations General Assembly.
00:12 Hi, welcome to the interview with the Prime Minister of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.
00:21 Hi, Mr. Prime Minister. You have a lot of work here in the United Nations as the President of
00:28 CARICOM and CELAC. Are you happy with the UN solutions to the many crises that simultaneously
00:37 afflict humanity? Well, first I want to thank you and Telesur for having us on the interview.
00:45 What is happening in the world today and the response from the United Nations, they're
00:52 complicated. There is an unevenness taking place. There's some progress in some areas
01:07 and then no progress in the regression in certain other areas.
01:16 First of all, let's take the important principle which undergirds the United Nations,
01:23 multilateralism. They're powerful countries which are not interested in multilateralism.
01:32 They're interested in hegemony. And despite the fact that they're not interested in
01:44 multilateralism, hypocritically they may wish to pretend and say they want to create a new world
01:50 order. I ask three simple questions in that regard. What's new? Which world? And who gives
01:59 the orders? That's right. So that's the general question. As the Secretary General of the UN,
02:06 Antonio Guterres, said in his opening speech on Tuesday morning that we need to bolster
02:13 multilateralism, genuine multilateralism, not unilateralist behavior, not imperial or hegemonic
02:22 behavior. Specific matters which concern us in the developing world. First,
02:31 the Sustainable Development Goals, the 17 Sustainable Development Goals.
02:37 We're halfway there in terms of the time span.
02:41 We are nowhere near achieving these goals and we're not going to achieve them.
02:49 Why? Well, several objective factors. Let's deal with a few intervening things.
02:58 COVID and natural disasters in several countries, including in St. Vincent and Grenadines in 2001,
03:06 21 volcanic eruptions in the month of April of that year.
03:09 But more generally speaking, you need resources to finance development.
03:15 And Goal 17 of the Sustainable Development Goals said that we must build efficacious
03:23 partnerships between the developed world and the developing world. And those partnerships
03:30 are not in existence. The pledges for financing, whether through the World Bank, the IMF,
03:37 the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, or the Paris Summit,
03:42 none of these things. We're not having the resources. And what the developed countries
03:52 expect us to do is to say, 'Thank you for trinkets, for crumbs'. Well, we're not doing that.
04:01 We are calling for a refashioning, a reconfiguration of the UN system and of power relations
04:11 throughout the world. And we see changes taking place in that regard. You go on the questions of
04:20 climate change, we're seeing reversals. Look, as soon as the pipeline from Russia to Europe
04:27 was disrupted, what did many European countries do? They went back and opened the coal mines.
04:33 And the coal mines provide more carbon in the atmosphere than before. So the benchmarks are
04:43 not being met, the benchmarks are not being met of the Paris Accord, and the financing is not in
04:50 place. So we have to have an entirely reformed financial architecture of the World Bank, the IMF.
04:57 And we need, in fact, the Bridgestone Initiative 2.0, advanced by Prime Minister Motley of Barbados,
05:07 which has been accepted by CARICOM and CILAC and the African Union and several other countries.
05:13 We need more concessionary resources. We need special attention to be paid to the debt.
05:21 We need a well-funded green bank and several other initiatives in the whole package
05:28 of the Bridgestone Initiative to address not only
05:32 financial development generally, but climate finance in particular. And then
05:41 there are specific matters in our hemisphere.
05:43 The United Nations, every single year, calls on the United States of America
05:52 to bring to an end the criminal embargo, illegal embargo.
05:58 But nothing happens.
05:59 Nothing happens. The state sponsorship of terrorism, which is a bogus declaration,
06:05 I mean, based on no facts, nothing happens.
06:08 Nothing happens.
06:09 So unilateral conduct continues.
06:12 In the case of Venezuela, the coercive measures, which are also illegal in international law,
06:19 those against Nicaragua, similarly.
06:23 In fact, in the case of Venezuela, you take the Petro-Caribbe agreement,
06:27 which has been so successful for the Caribbean, including St. Vincent and the Grenadines,
06:34 because of the weaponizing of the US dollar and the coercive sanctions,
06:41 Petro-Caribbe has fallen apart.
06:43 And thus, a country like St. Vincent and the Grenadines, we are collateral damage.
06:50 And why?
06:51 And all of this has been done by, out of the United States,
06:58 the foreign policy in relation to Cuba and Venezuela and Nicaragua,
07:02 determined by the domestic politics in South Florida,
07:06 presidential politics, congressional politics, governor-type politics.
07:10 So they're prisoners of that.
07:13 But we can't accept that.
07:15 And that's why we make these calls all the time.
07:18 And there's great resistance coming.
07:21 I mean, let's face it.
07:24 There are three approaches we can use in addressing this quest for hegemony.
07:29 One, we can roll over and play dead.
07:32 We are not doing that.
07:33 Secondly, we can make accommodations where practical, necessary and desirable.
07:40 But always bearing in mind that when you make those accommodations,
07:44 they're not taking you into a dead end.
07:47 You're going to the mountaintop,
07:49 even though it may take you a little longer time.
07:52 And at the same time,
07:53 we have to resist creatively with a series of initiatives.
07:58 And that's why SILAC is working closely with the African Union.
08:03 That is why CARICOM is working closely with the African Union and with India,
08:09 different countries with the Chinese civilization
08:14 and whatever their political expressions.
08:17 And we see the expansion of the BRICS.
08:21 So the global South, generally speaking,
08:26 what we are witnessing,
08:27 even though there is not yet a settled multipolarity,
08:31 the old way of unipolarity is coming to an end.
08:37 And that is representing both a danger
08:44 and at the same time, immense opportunities.
08:46 A danger because those who held the unipolar power
08:54 want to act in a preemptive way against rising powers.
09:00 But the multipolarity creates spaces and opportunities
09:06 for all of us in this world to more equitably live in peace,
09:12 in security and prosperity and to protect our planet.
09:15 Speaking about protect all the planet,
09:19 Prime Minister, how does the climate crisis affect the Caribbean this year specifically?
09:27 Oh, they affect us tremendously, in a very negative way.
09:32 There are more frequency of storms, hurricanes,
09:37 the alternating, interestingly, by the rainfall, the landslides,
09:44 warming of the seas, all of that.
09:46 All of those things are accompanied also by drought,
09:50 alternating droughts and land degradation.
09:55 And if you look at all of our islands,
10:03 we contribute very little, as is well known, to global warming.
10:07 But we are really on the dangerous front lines.
10:12 And among the money that we require in the budget,
10:16 the capital budget for St. Vincent and the Grenadines,
10:19 over 60% of our capital budget is devoted to matters touching and concerning,
10:27 adaptation and mitigation because of climate change.
10:31 - And... - And not in other issues.
10:35 - And that's important also. - Absolutely.
10:37 Just because this thing is existential,
10:39 we have to keep our lands, we have to do sea defences,
10:44 we have to do river defences, we have to build more resilient houses.
10:51 - To save people. - We have to invest capital resources
10:56 in renewable energies, sources and so on and so forth.
11:01 But we're not getting the funding.
11:06 Since 2009, they promised about $100 billion US per year.
11:12 But nobody has seen one cent of that money.
11:15 That money in any case is wholly inadequate for the challenges at hand.
11:20 And we are in danger of...
11:23 We are on a course, if we don't change,
11:27 that by 2050, this world is going to be more and more difficult to live in.
11:35 - Absolutely. I agree with you.
11:39 And I have a last question, Prime Minister.
11:41 Some president in this UN session said that
11:47 international monetary fund is financing the Ukraine war.
11:52 And the same international monetary fund is one of the charges increasing interest
12:00 to countries with the foreign debt.
12:02 You speak about the foreign debt.
12:05 What is your reaction about that?
12:07 - Well, certainly the increase in the United States,
12:11 the increase in interest rates is reflected in lending rates
12:16 from all institutions which lend money,
12:19 whether it's the World Bank, the IMF, the Caribbean Development Bank,
12:26 the sovereign funds in the Middle East and so on.
12:30 Because the trade is largely in US dollars.
12:35 And they dominate the global financial markets.
12:40 So that is becoming more and more difficult for countries,
12:46 not just poor countries, but middle-income countries to borrow money.
12:51 That's one of the reasons why you need the cheaper resources,
12:55 more of those cheaper resources
12:56 and a reform of the international financial architecture.
13:00 And it is clear in Ukraine that what is happening there,
13:08 the local is the Ukraine,
13:13 but this is a battle between,
13:15 it's a war between the NATO countries and Russia.
13:20 And Ukraine doesn't have the resources for the weapons,
13:26 to finance all what is going on.
13:28 And we see what is happening in the US Congress.
13:30 What, nearly a hundred million dollars?
13:35 And yet a pittance is offered comparatively to Haiti,
13:41 which is next door and which have some very serious problems,
13:44 which we have to try and solve because of the gangs,
13:47 the terrible humanitarian hardships and so on and so forth,
13:50 food insecurity.
13:52 There is no funds for the developing countries.
13:56 There is no fund for climate change,
13:58 but there is a fund, an important fund for Ukraine.
14:02 That's the point.
14:03 That precisely is the point.
14:06 And even for countries which would have criticized Russia,
14:14 those countries are getting weary and tired
14:20 that every time a conversation begins,
14:22 it's Ukraine, Ukraine, Ukraine.
14:25 When we have the climate change,
14:27 when we have the sustainable development goals,
14:30 we have poverty and inequality and hunger
14:34 and all the conflicts all over the world.
14:38 It's not only about one issue.
14:42 And all the attention is being paid by the countries
14:49 which have ruled this world,
14:50 essentially for the last 200 years on that issue.
14:55 Well, we are sorry.
14:56 That's not the only show in town.
15:02 There are other things which we have to talk about.
15:04 Big things.
15:06 It's not only one billion people in the world either,
15:11 or a small number within the countries with one billion people.
15:14 The world has eight billion people.
15:18 And we have a lot of people who are starving,
15:20 a lot of people who are hurting,
15:22 a lot of people who are not going to school,
15:24 a lot of girls and women who are still oppressed.
15:27 It's not just about this one issue.
15:32 And we are calling for peace in Ukraine.
15:36 And you may well have to have a settlement on Ukraine.
15:41 Not where everybody is satisfied,
15:45 but you may well have a mutually agreed level of dissatisfaction
15:49 so long as we have peace,
15:50 which will add to security and prosperity in the world.
15:53 Thank you, Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves,
15:57 for being today with Tel Aviv.
16:00 Thank you very much.
16:01 Thank you.
16:02 much. Thank you.
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